Wednesday, November 12, 2014

BPN 1694: Amazon peddles Dutch language e-books (at) last

Today
webgiant Amazon has discovered The Netherlands and has discovered that the
Dutch speak and read in their own language. So Amazon Nederland has started to offer three
million digital books in many languages in combination with 20.000 Dutch language e-books as
well as its own Kindle e-readers. But what the hell is Amazon looking for in a
country of 16,5 million people and a worldwide Dutch speaking population of 22
million people (Flanders in Belgium and Afrikaans in South Africa)?

Amazon
has negotiated with the Dutch language publishers in the past month and have
now reached an assortment of 20.000 e-books. This number of titles is mainly
coming from major publishing houses. In fact, it is not yet 60 percent of the
entire Dutch language offer of e-books. Publisher of the other 40 percent have
been hesitant to sign agreements with Amazon, fearing that they hardly would recover
costs and would eventually be pressured by Amazon for lower prices.

E-books
sold by Amazon have a format which only can be read on its own Kindle machine. So,
you have to buy a Kindle and can only return to Amazon to buy e-books. E-books
bought elsewhere can be put on the Kindle. This means that Amazon shows
monopolistic traces like Microsoft.

Will
Amazon make it in the Netherlands? Amazon starts so far only with e-books.
Orders for printed books in other languages than Dutch are still to be
delivered through the subsidiaries in the UK and Germany. So the offer is not
impressive.

Yet
it is a start. Slowly Amazon will be able to penetrate the Dutch market for
printed books and move from there to an online retail shop. This is the way followed
by the Dutch online retail company Bol.com. They started out with printed
books, CD media, e-books and moved into retail untill they were bought by the
Dutch retail company Albert Heijn. But Amazon will have a problem of scale and
culture moving to the retail market. The Dutch market is small and the culture
is European and not American. And as the European market is fragmented due to various
languages, it will be hard to offer a European product catalogue.

Why
does Amazon move into the Dutch market. Not for the Dutch language e-books, but
mainly to protect the market of foreign language e-books. Dutch language
e-books might help the sale of Kindle e-readers and foreign language e-books.

The
keyword here is might. The Dutch
market has already a long tradition in e-books. In 1994 Sony attempted to introduce e-books (on mini-discs) with a
few reference book publishers. That attempt failed. But
by 1997 distribution over internet of e-books for Rocket and Softbook e-readers
made a clear start, be it that the displays of these e-readers were still
tiresome. When the iLiad e-reader made the e-Ink technology commercial in 2006, e-books
became serious merchandise. E-books really took off from 2010 onwards with
sales up to Q3 of 2014 of 7 million copies.
Main distributors are online retailer Bol.com which recently associated itself with
Kobo (e-readers and world catalogue of e-books) and CB, a central and e-book
distribution organisation, mainly working for bookshops, which are selling the
Tolino e-reader (just like the German bookshops).

But
there is more. Dutch readers are not used to closed formats. They have
clamoured against one e-book-one e-reader. Now they can put their e-books on
more than one devices. Besides most of the Dutch language e-books do not have a
lock (Adobe DRM with only 1,8 pct), but have a watermark (97 pct).

The
choice is now on the Dutch language readers. The major publishers have chosen
for the extra money from the Dutch language e-books. The other publishers, who
did not decide yet, have a choice of really befriending the Dutch language
readers and so building up a longlasting relationship or choosing for Amazon.

Pursuing the remark of the
CEO of Bol.com, Daniel Rops: Amazon has come to the party as the last invitee;
I would like to add: and brought along a present which cannot be opened and
seen by everyone.For Dutch market details have a look at the Dutch and English pdf infographic: http://www.cb-logistics.nl/nieuws/cb-publiceert-nieuwe-e-bookcijfers/.

Order Dutch language book by clicking this image

WSA

About Me

Jak Boumans (1945) is principal consultant with Electronic Media Reporting, a private consultancy specialised in content strategy, based in Almere (The Netherlands). In 1970 he started in the publishing industry with companies like VNU and Kluwer, particularly in general encyclopaedias. From 1980 he got involved in electronic publishing, running a videotex studio. In 1984 he launched a daily online newsletter for the computer industry from London. In 1987 he was part of the production team that produced the first Dutch subscription CD-ROM for Kluwer for lawyers.
In 1990 he started the private company Electronic Media Reporting, a consultancy specialised in content. He worked for international organisation ( European Commission, OESO), Dutch ministries, national organisations and companies.
He is secretary-general of the European Academy of Digital Media (EADiM) and board member of the multimedia competition World Summit Award (WSA).
He has written for national and international magazines. He was contributor, editor and editor-in-chief of Telecombrief (1981-2004). He wrote, contributed to and co-edited books. His last book in Dutch was on Pre-internet in de polder (1967-1997).